If your teacher stems at all in Ottawa from Mike Pimblett or is Mike. You have found a great teacher. Lethal striking ability. I only had a chance to get out there a few times, but super impressed.
I have no knowledge when it comes to Ninjutsu, but quality instruction is available closer to home. Take FMA for example. I've trained with GM Danny Guba, GM Danny Huertas, Master Lee Banda, Ian Forster, Guro Krishna Godhania and Grand Master Percival 'Val' Pableo all in the UK. You also have Pat O'Malley, Andrew Janson (Janno), Ermar Alexander's to name but a few. Some of those guys are Filipino and you may get another side of the art should you travel there, but you can't tell me training with any of those guys will leave you lacking.
To be honest bujinkan is the last thing I'd start to learn off a video because, with the best will in the world, the quality control is lacking in the org and even more so in video form. At least with arts with a competitive element you can tell who can walk the walk by their records (although whether they can teach or not is another issue).
My common sense and experience leads me towards the same conclusions as you to be honest, however I'm not sure about how much my experiences and common sense apply to this particular beast. RP has put across some interesting arguments for why transmission outside of Japan might be lacking and I have my own suspicions regarding deliberate deficiencies in the BJK. That's not to say I necessarily buy into his opinion. The cynic in me thinks the BJK is hatsumi's cash cow and his transmission of the ryuha is something separate. He might well enjoy the adulation of gajin and image of ninja master too and want to court that. But that's just speculation. All I know is the BJK is a minefield and the quality control is aweful. There will be a reason, or a collection of reasons but I don't know what they are. Please note I've never told anyone they can't train properly or that training of quality isn't available outside of Japan.
What Kazem's book are you referring to exactly? & I had exactly the same thought about guys who show up to a class thinking they know everything. This is not my attitude at all. I'm just trying to be ready both mentally and physically for whatever my Sensei will show me. I'm not trying to build a castle on my own before I attend a carpentry class, my goal is to get my land as flat as possible and make it ready for construction. Last time I met my Sensei he just told me to practice a basic Bo stance until next time, and to try to ingrain other basic stances in my everyday lifestyle. I'm a skateboarder since forever so I'm pretty solid on my feet and my stance on a board resembles a combat stance. I see a link between skateboarding and Ninjutsu since most of the movements seem to be linear and direct. Then again I might be wrong and I'm not expecting to succeed like crazy just because of my sport. This is why I'm mostly looking up books and theory for now because I don't want to make physical mistakes that will follow me in my progress. I'm just trying to get in the right state of mind. Thanks a lot to everyone for participating and encouraging me on my journey, honestly I was kinda scared that this forum would be dead. :Alien: I'm very open to suggestions, even though I'm not so sure about YouTube.
If your teacher gave you something to practice, practice. Next time he gives you something more to practice, practice the first thing and that that thing. Rinse and repeat. This is the most clear way to progress I think. As for YouTube and outside resources, ask him for recommendations. Given that lineage, I am sure he will have some specifics for you.
If what you see interests you and you see value in it at this time then it's worth your time to check it out. If you're satisfied there then good luck to you. If you're not satisfied there's nothing wrong with looking around further. It's tough to know exactly what you're getting into when starting in this art so it's best to ask your teacher a lot of questions up front to have an understanding of where he comes from. How long has he been training? Who is his teacher? How long has your teacher's teacher been training? Who was and now is your teacher's teacher? Etc. Your instructor should be able to answer these straight-forward questions easily. If his answers raise doubt in you it's better to know sooner rather than later. Enjoy the ride. It can get bumpy.
I had half a mind to ignore this thread but... It's stupid nonsense to talk authoritatively about something you know nothing about. Even more so when your position lends a certain weight to your words. I have no problem with people disagreeing with me, or trying to find errors in my logic. Having said that, I do have a problem when people who have zero experience and zero idea about these arts make claims which even people with some idea and some experience in them cannot(or rather would not) make. And this is the point, which is demonstrated below. If you have no knowledge, you shouldn't be giving advice, commentary, or making statements that you have no way of backing up. We don't all have to get along or agree, but there should be some amount of common sense when addressing newbies. My opinions are backed up by experience and thousands of case examples. Can you learn how to fight without ever stepping foot in Japan? Absolutely! Can you learn how to punch and kick or wrestle without coming to Japan? Of course you can. Can you really learn ninjutsu without living in Japan? Well, that depends on what you mean by learn? Can you get some rudimentary understanding of the history and fighting skills? Kinda. But that isn't really learning now is it? All of the masters of the arts demonstrate a certain skill and quality of movement that comes from how they learned from their teacher. Many of the students even a generation removed from that do not demonstrate this same skill and ability. Maybe it comes with maturity and a certain number of decades of doing the same things over and over, or maybe it comes from the training progression and how it was taught. The only foreigner who comes close to demonstrating this ability also lived and learned in Japan. So what would an intelligent and logical person deduce as the reason for such ability? Go to any random ninjutsu dojo in California? The Bujinkan might be a cash cow, but there are incredible martial arts principles, techniques, and training within the 9 ryu. Having spent my formative years in these arts learning in America, I can tell you that you will spend as many years unlearning the wrong things by taking that route and later moving to Japan to learn. Sadly, the majority never even do that, so they are stuck with their mistakes. Could you still fight even though you aren't internalising correctly? Perhaps, but that isn't "really learning" the arts. If you want to learn the ninja way of doing things, then yes you need to come to Japan and apprentice yourself under one of the masters. Just showing up at Soke's classes or dojo hopping will not cut it and even if you do become a disciple of a master, there is still NO GUARANTEE that you will ever get it. If you have different goals, then feel free to make whatever choice you want.
Proves my point really. As I said, not everyone wants to be Ronnie Coleman. If you do want to be like Ronnie Coleman, then you have to do what he does. If you don't then you can still look good and maybe even win a local or national competition by sticking with a good local gym and putting in the work.
Actually, not. There are differences in the stances, basics, applications, and many many more aspects of these arts that you wouldn't know unless you'd experienced both. It not just about being the best, but being the best one can possibly be. Not everyone is in it to become a master, but the masters are the only one's who can teach you the real art(shouldn't be a surprise really). You proved mine by continuing to give advice about something you know nothing about. You don't know their goals or aspirations either. Not everyone necessarily wants to become Renzo Gracie, but if you were going to devote time, money, and effort into learning Gracie Jujutsu, you would probably want to learn something that could lead to similar skillsets and not just some generic form of wrasslin'. As there are plenty of good quality GJJ and BJJ schools out there, it shouldn't be that hard. However, was this not the case, then going to Brazil and seeking out a real Gracie would make sense. If no authentic, qualified, masters were available outside of Brazil, that would be the only choice(if that is what you wanted to study). Again, it is simple to learn how to fight, and you can do that in any country, but that's not the question.
The advice is go and train, learn, seek out the best you can access, afford and get to regularly. From there one can expand their horizons should they so wish. If I'm completely wrong then why not help a newby by giving advice and some links on where to go, who to seek out, or the next best alternative.
And that advice is great for some arts/people, however when it comes to ninjutsu, the masses who followed it created the mess we see today. My stance is slightly different: The advice is go to Japan and train, learn, seek out the best Master for you, who you can get to regularly. Getting there regularly is key but so is seeking out and becoming a student of the master that is it for you. The next best alternative is probably to study a different art and build up your body and nervous system so that when you are ready to take the above advice, you will be somewhat prepared. If you must start these arts outside of Japan, try to find a teacher who is closest to that ideal(with the knowledge that you will not be learning the same thing). Just like people who want to visit the North Pole, they have to give up certain comforts if they are sincere in that desire. These are not the martial arts of convenience but distance. Telling someone to just settle to learn something wrong first only to relearn it properly isn't good advice. Nor is the mindset that you have to stay in your neighbourhood, city, state, or country. There are plenty of job opportunities or study abroad options for people to consider, automatically telling them not to think about that and stick to their biases doesn't foster a ninja attitude. If you only lived in Japan for a year and trained at a dojo twice a week, that would be a good foundation for you to begin with. If you then returned to your country and continued to practice and build on that base, you would be a lot further along than spending 5-10 years in your country and then moving to Japan. It is possible, and had men like Doron and Stephen Hayes(to name a few) not done so years ago, we wouldn't have the luxury of arguing about it online today.
Guys please stop talking about moving to Japan, this is soooo stupid of you. I'm just getting started, don't you think it would be a total waste of time and resources to "go live in Japan" at my level? Also I specified that I'm looking for tips because right now I'm working too much to take his classes. How can I go live in Japan if I'm working too much? That said, I might actually visit Japan during my training in a few years or so, but please stop talking about it. This is far from the issue here. You're wasting everybody's time.
Well the one person who is saying that people should, does. He trains in Japan in the exact fashion he advocates. He's telling you why too. I guess now he's put it out there you can evaluate it for yourself. I wouldn't tell experienced people who are essentially offering their best advice that they are stupid though. If you like your prospective school then just go there. Enjoy it and maintain an open critical mind.
I don't think it would ever be a waste of time or resources to visit Japan. I wish I had both. However, if you only visited Japan to study ninjutsu, that would be big waste. I'm sure you can learn a great deal about Ninjutsu without going to Japan (Hatsumi's and his students have written many books for example). Learning by experience in a random school would vary in terms of quality. Learning by experience from Hatsumi and his students in Japan would presumably be 'the best'. But I think it really depends on your personal commitment to the art itself. Your interest might be superficial as yours seems to be, in which case learning anywhere is fine. Ultimately what I think Please Reality was getting at is that a true disciple of the art would be compelled to visit Japan, hopefully to do more than study at the Bujinkan, but more fully engross themselves in the culture. Similarly, I would love to visit Canton and Songhan and study from a Hung gar master. Maybe it will happen someday, but for now I'm content to study with people in the US, who have already visited Canton and Songshan.
Right, I'm sorry for saying the word "stupid" but my point is that given my situation and what I said in the original post, anyone who'd have read correctly and tried to understand what I was asking wouldn't have told me "Just go live in Japan" because it doesn't make any sense here. I'm not asking for a place to travel, I'm seeking out basic knowledge that's all.
Well the implied other side to his advice to stay and train where you are but be aware of the fact that you might not be learning fully or correctly and to remain vigilant of that fact and to make decisions, research and analyse what your are shown with that in mind. To be forewarned etc You'll learn well enough that the bujinkan is a total mess if you stick around in it or if you research it. The quality control is insanely bad, the politics are ridiculous and hardly anyone can fight.
